Who? Me??

I am sure that by now most of you have heard of this song.

If you haven’t yet heard the song, then do give this video a look-see -

There is a huge hype around this song, for a multitude of reasons -

• It’s written and sung by the son-in-law of Rajnikanth
• The main keyword of the song, kolaveri actually has no meaning per se. It’s sort of an accepted slang which means rage … murderous rage to be exact
• The song is half in tamil (no frilly lyrics there), but simple casually strung lyrics, and half in english … in fact I do not understand Tamil, yet I could make out the gist of the song
• The gist of the song itself, is identifiable by the multitudes of youth
• The beat of the song is catchy, in fact I can imagine this song being put on full blast on speakers on a lazy afternoon in the locality
• Is this simply a good song bolstered by viral social media or is this an internet meme ala Rebecca Black’s Friday? Well, it’s a viral phenomenon for sure.
• Dhanush seems to be enjoying the creation of this video as well, and you can see the support of other stars such as Shruti Hassan in the background
• The part where the song goes “pa pa pa paan, pa pa pa paan … ” that’s enjoyed by both my daughter and wife

The internet is virtually an infinite source of inspiration, great news, stupidity and entertainment. I thought that I might share some gems which are either relevant to me, or which I think you might find interesting.

• It’s been a month that I have been a father of two, oh, we are going to name him Malhar!
• Hilarious sledging of Delhi boys, by a Madrasan (damn, that post has generated 2.3k comments in a week!)
• My organization got funded last week, by the very firm which funded some awesome products such as Facebook, Bittorrent, etc.
• The Big K from CrazyEngineers embarks on a Journey of a Lifetime

Oh, in case you are wondering what the heck is Blue Nothing, it’s a term I read in one interesting novel on Social Engineering (and it’s evils). The internet is the Blue Nothing!

Yesterday was the world premier of the movie Singham, starring Ajay Devgan. World premier is just a euphemism to say that the distributors of the movie want to extract a bit more from television advertisements. The movie is definitely a non-stop entertaining watch, with eye-candy Kajal having some idiotic scenes, great action scenes and good sound tracks. A masala flick.

The reason movies such as Singham, Wanted (Salman Khan) and Nayak (Anil Kapoor) run at the box office, and become decent sized hits is simply that the people have become tired of the degree of corruption in the Indian system. Being tired is still different from being objective, and hence as a common man, we do not do any thing, however, in the movies, the protagonist takes on the corrupt system and by sheer force of his will (and lots of brute force) make a change happen. We like to believe in such a romantique notion.

For the past three years, I have been living in Mumbai. The city never ceases to amaze me with its variety, its vibrance and the sheer number of people it feeds. One of the threads that is seen snagging almost all the political conflicts in this place is the Marathi Manus. I think the term was coined and abused by the senior Thackeray, after which it has become the Congress equivalent of the Aam Aadmi.

Ask yourself this, how many times have you seen this ubiquitous Marathi Manus in action?

• How many times, is he given an accolade for some achievement or something?
• How many times does the society celebrate him?
• How many time does he get cited in the newspaper (and not as a collective noun)

The list could go on, but I guess, if any individual does manage to do any of the above, then that person is automatically separated from the collective identity of the Marathi Manus. It’s a socialist collective noun.

And, that’s precisely where you will see him. The morchas, the ganpati mandals and the gokulashtamis, the political party rallies and the voting booth stints, the fairs and the trains. All places where there is a sea and no scope to stand out, that’s where the collective stands out the most.

That saddens me, the fact that this term requires a collective to define itself, and will always stay around a collective. A collective which is meant to be led, and to be manipulated.

It’s that part of the year again, the time when Mumbai rocks as one, and the sleeping Marathi Manus comes out of the house to celebrate with everyone.

In case you are in Mumbai, then do consider this as a personal invitation to grace my abode for Ganesh Chaturthi for darshan (and ice-cream ).

Address – 306, Akruti Nova-A, Akruti Niharika Complex, Off N. S. Phadke Marg, Saiwadi, Andheri (E)

Dates – 1st September and 2nd September

With too many blogs, media shows and news announcements on the Lok Pal Bill, I thought I would add my $0.02 on the subject.

I confess that I am no expert on this, but neither do I want to be. I do not want to add to the voice of social passivism.

It’s sad to think that the country would require one support system to keep other support systems in check which were meant to do their job. That’s it in a nut shell.

What guarantee do we have that the Lok Pal committee will not do their jobs?

Here’s my favorite quote which is so apt in this context – Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

It’s Diwali in Mumbai. I can hear to the fireworks still going on … as Dhoni and the Indian team is getting prepared for lifting the world cup.

Cricket is a religion in India, and you could see it today as many Indians in the stadium were praying during the last few tense moments. The entire nation had come to a stand still during the final match of the World Cup 2011.

I had to drop my parents off to the railway station, and the roads were as empty as they normally are at 2am in the morning. Traffic signals were not working, auto rickshaws were not there. Imagine no traffic near Andheri Station!!

A final note, I had been a critic of MS Dhoni, but I am happy to admit that I was wrong. Well played Mr. Cool!! Hats off!! And Thank You!!

A side note … where is Ms. Pandey?

There used to be a fine oak tree, in a lovely green meadow. Over the years it had grown to be a sprawling tree with lush green foliage. Travellers would often come to that spot seeking relief under the cool shade of the tree. As time went by, the oak had an acorn, and the acorn was of age.

The acorn was enamoured of the outside world and wanted to roll along the meadow and grow into a strapping young oak. The oak loved the acorn, and told the acorn that the oak would be hurt if it were to go away from the tree. The world beckoned to the acorn … the acorn was torn between the two paths of action. The acorn finally decided to play it safe and stick with the oak tree. The oak tree was happy. The acorn was happy that the oak was happy.

As time would have it, the acorn finally fell. It rolled a few feet away from the tree (as they say … the acorn does not fall far from the oak). The acorn turned into a small plant and found happiness in the shade of the oak.

Many years passed, and the plant remained a plant … it suffered from stunted growth and did not fully grow into an oak tree. The plant was competing with the oak for water and minerals and it was not getting any sun shine due to the oak’s shade. The plant remained a withered shadow of the oak. The oak noticed this, and felt sad … the acorn should have been a full fledged oak by now, yet here it was … a sapling living on the oaks resources.

In some years, the oak tree (now old beyond its years) fell ill and began to falter. It was fast losing its leaves, and looked a shadow of its former self. Woodcutters noticed this rich source of wood and decided to bring this sick tree down. Along with the sick oak, was also a weak sapling. The woodcutters took pity on both the trees and chopped them off.

Travellers who often passed by that meadow still talk of the oak tree … but few remember the weak sapling.

How many people do we meet that fail to find a voice when the occasion demands and find their identity?

Got to see a peek at the IT Vision document of Reserve Bank of India, thanks to a tweet by a friend. Go ahead, read it, I am not going anywhere. I will save you the effort though, I can summarize it in one word.

Hogwash.

In more colloquial terms, Bullshit.

There cannot be a more generic document which meanders around superfluously. It touches upon literally all the peripheral topics which one can bring up when the words Information Technology are mentioned, but it fails to take a stand on any topic.

I gave them the benefit of doubt and went to the Contact Us section of their website. After I keyed in a longish feedback to their vision document, when I submitted the request, I got a very nice error message (shown below)

Great execution of the vision RBI! Not only have you declared that your vision for technology is a blurred mixture of all corporate jargons, but also one of the most basic functionalities on your website is not working.

Further reading on the report informed me that a committee had been setup to create the vision document. Committees are the perfect excuses for being faceless, blameless and gutless. You do not have to take any stand and you do not have to do any work.

Good job o ye Banker of Banks!

Yes, you read that correctly. Today when I was coming to office, this thought struck me. Aren’t we all nowadays working in some commercial complex or the other?

Huge concrete towers where multiple corporates have their offices, and people moving in small “colleague huddles” from one place to the other? This is especially true in the cases of SMEs (small and medium enterprises), since they do not have enough capital to invest into a full blown facility of their own. So walk into any commercial complex and you will find hundreds of such firms humming with activity. With all the employees going about their day-to-day work … 10am tea break, 1pm lunch break, 5pm tea break … and so on. Aren’t these employees akin to worker ants then?

This tea break thing is a fascinating concept. I wonder if top managers know that tea breaks are the places where dissent is majorly expressed. They are the right places to tap into the corporate grapevine. An ex-colleague of mine used to do this by walking into offices incognito (since he was the CEO of the firm) and sitting inconspicuously in the canteen. Sooner or later some employees would come gossiping by and he would get his insight into the workings of that branch.

Hmmm … I wonder when this mode of working will evolve into a more individualistic nature?